Press releases

Bosnia and Herzegovina environment at a glance

Arendal 26 June - Plenty of tree are growing richly in the forests, which cover half the land area in the newly independent state, Bosnia and Herzegovina. But farmers have problems finding land suitable to grow crops. Such are some of thefindings in the new report "Environment in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2002".

The report gives an overview of the environmental issues facing this newly-independent country, ranging from air quality to landmines. This is the first printed publication on the state of the environment of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) since its independence in 1992.

Because of its unique political and social situation, the problems that Bosnia and Herzegovina faces are rare in the European context and for that reason, its environmental performance is either much worse or much better than the performance of most other European countries.

"Environment in Bosnia and Herzegovina" presents an overview of some internationally available data on the BIH environment and suggests a set of environmental indicators for future national state of the environment reports like population, biodiveristy and forestry. The report points out sources of environmental information on BIH, in order to help the efforts of national and international experts and researchers in their search for data.

The report is published by the Civil Society Promotion Center in Sarajevo, with assistance from the Heinrich Boell Stiftung, the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy of Central European University, theDepartment of Environmental Sciences and Policy of CEU, and GRID-Arendal.